Dwight Howard Claims He Didn’t Ask for Stan Van Gundy to Be Fired

Dwight Howard once again faced the press and denied having gone to Orlando Magic management and asking for his coach to be canned (an opinion not shared by Stan Van Gundy.) From the Orlando Sentinel: “Howard made his denial [Thursday] in a one-on-one interview with ESPN’s Hannah Storm. Clearly, the Magic and Howard hope that the interview will start to repair some of the damage to his reputation […] : Storm: ‘Tell me about that day when Stan Van Gundy told the media that you had gone to upper management and asked for him to get fired — from the moment you walked into the room unaware of what had taken place.’ Howard: ‘Totally unaware; you know, I didn’t know what was going on. To be honest, the day before I saw some stuff come out where it was said, from sources, that I demanded that Stan get out of there. And I was like, ‘That’s crazy’. I never even said anything about it.’ Storm: ‘So you never asked for him to be fired?’ Howard: ‘No, no. So when it was said, I was just like, in shock, I was in shock.’ Storm: ‘How does something like that happen? If you never made the request, then who told him that the request had been made?’ Howard: ‘I have no idea. I have no idea. You know, but …’ Storm: ‘Did that bother you?’ Howard: ‘Did that bother me? You know, it did, it did. I got a lot of negative press out of the whole situation. You know, ‘Coach killer, this or that.’ And it was just bizarre how the whole thing happened. You know, but, I haven’t said anything this season — to anybody in management about, you know, you need to do this with Stan, or vice versa; they never said we’ll do this for you.’ Storm: ‘Have you said it in past seasons?’ Howard: ‘Have I said it before? Ahh … Being upset, yea, I’ve said it, you know, but I’ve always come back and said I’ll do a better job, I’ll take more of a hit, I’ll lead better, I’ll do everything I can to get better.’ Storm: ‘What is it about the dynamic that is difficult?’ Howard: ‘I think me and Stan, we both have just strong, strong personalities. And at the end of the day we both want the same thing; we’ve sat in the office, we’ve had talks, and our goal is to win a championship.’ Storm: ‘What did he say to you?’ Howard: ‘Um, well he felt like what he did was out of line. And like I told him, after everything that went down, whatever was said was said. That’s over and done with; from this day forward let’s try to be on the same page so we can lead our team.’ Storm: ‘If you could look back over the last year and do anything differently, would you?’ Howard: ‘The only thing I could probably say that I could have done better is probably just keep my mouth shut more.'”